If people are saying that Bruce hung up his cape when Harvey died, then what is the purpose of a full blown Batcave for 8 yrs if he hasn't been Batman? He must have been Batman for a bit longer if he has a Batcave.

Bruce - "Hey Alfred, let's build a Batcave"

Alfred - "But Master Wayne, you gave up being Batman after Mr. Dent died....and you intend to until 8 yrs are up and something worse happens"

Bruce - " Yeh? well, What the hell!?! Let's build one anyway for *****s and giggles! I just wanna spend some money"

They've lost a lot of their original innocence, and they can't get that back. And, they're stuck, it seems, in this kind of depressive ghetto of grimness and psychosis. I'm not too proud of being the author of that regrettable trend.

Well, at the end of Begins they'd already planned to rebuild Wayne Manor with improvements to the foundations on the southeast corner. So it wasn't for S&G's
Unfortunately The Joker showed up and caused a bit of a delay in the rebuilding project, but after TDK whilst on the lam I'm sure he wanted to build something secure to hide not only his identity but also prepare in case something like the Joker happened again.

He used it for watching pornmovies starring Jenna Jameson, wanted to date her, made the contact and when he opened the door he broke his pelvis from being shocked so hard because she looks like a freak now. THAT was the reason for him to come out of retirement.

*Sighs*

__________________A chemist, a capitalist, a nihilist, a mutation, a viper.

If people are saying that Bruce hung up his cape when Harvey died, then what is the purpose of a full blown Batcave for 8 yrs if he hasn't been Batman? He must have been Batman for a bit longer if he has a Batcave.

Bruce - "Hey Alfred, let's build a Batcave"

Alfred - "But Master Wayne, you gave up being Batman after Mr. Dent died....and you intend to until 8 yrs are up and something worse happens"

Bruce - " Yeh? well, What the hell!?! Let's build one anyway for *****s and giggles! I just wanna spend some money"

Alfred - "Exceptional!"

We've all have seen pics of the Batcave....Plothole anyone?

As others have said the Batcave was being modified during the events of TDK. Assuming he was not active on the street as Batman after TDK he could still use the Batcave to influence things from afar.

I've been wondering this as well. It can't just be to hide all of his stuff or else all he would've needed to do was have his suit in a wooden case like he did in BB... he wouldn't have needed something that came up out of the ground.

I've also heard from a few different places that his computer comes up out of the water, and one of the people that said it has been a very reliable source about a lot of stuff that has to do with TDKR before. He wouldn't need the bat-computer if he retired immediately after TDK. I think that, at least for a while, he stayed Batman and let the police "set the dogs on him"... try to catch him, got injured in doing so, and then had to retire from it.

__________________"You are part of the night, just like me. We're not afraid of the dark--we come alive in it...we're thrilled by it."-Catwoman to Batman

It's a reasonable question. Unless that's what he has been doing for the past 8 years: rebuilding the batcave as a vault/tomb for his gear and shrine for his parents, Rachel, Harvey. That would be really sad.

Maybe he hurt his leg after falling off a ladder. It is quite dark down there and probably not the steadiest ground.

it was probably built before the end of TDK. They just hadn't moved everything from the bunker to there yet. we might see what exactly he did with it. He may have moved his stuff there and mothballed it.

I always felt that while he was not Batman for many years physically, that mentally he remained "The Dark Knight"... perhaps using all his tech in the bat cave to still keep an eye on Gotham and be a "watchful protector".

I had always hoped that at the very least over these 8 years, Bruce spent many long nights in the bat cave staring at the computer and live feed cameras just making sure Gotham was in good shape. I would find it odd and be disappointed if this wasn't the case at all.

I always felt that while he was not Batman for many years physically, that mentally he remained "The Dark Knight"... perhaps using all his tech in the bat cave to still keep an eye on Gotham and be a "watchful protector".

I had always hoped that at the very least over these 8 years, Bruce spent many long nights in the bat cave staring at the computer and live feed cameras just making sure Gotham was in good shape. I would find it odd and be disappointed if this wasn't the case at all.

It could be like a Superman II/Spider-Man II type of situation where he hangs up the suit during the course of the film, probably when it's clear Gordon is getting forced out as Commissioner and Gotham is in "peace time" and is moving on (or at least until the **** storm that is Bane and his plan arrives).